Since the beginning of time, people have used all sorts of apparatuses and methods for catching fish. Stone-agers used gorges made of bone, flint, or wood as fishing implements. There is evidence to suggest that the ancient Egyptians used rods for fishing. Rods with reels are known to have existed by the 16th Century. Anglers have always sought to improve their efficiency in catching fish whether by necessity, when the catch is for subsistence, or for fun, when the catch is for sport.
The addition of a reel to a fishing pole dramatically alters the fishing event. The reel affords the angler the opportunity to immediately store more fishing line that allows the bait or lure to be cast into distant locations where fish may be hiding. The ability to reel the line allows the angler to better control the movement and position of the bait. Reels may be spinning reels, spin casting reels, or fly reels, each suitable for its own application.
Volumes have been written on techniques and devices to help an angler catch more fish. There are numerous publications on fish philosophy that attempt to teach the reader how to think like a fish. What kind of food does a fish prefer? Where is a fish likely to hide? What sort of look or motion to the bait catches a fish's attention? Will a fish be repelled by the exposed barbed end of a hook? Will the species of fish sought prefer minnows, grasshoppers, crickets, crawfish, shrimp, or worms as bait?
For example, well-known large mouth bass idiosyncrasies are they are always hungry, curious, aggressive, easily teased, territorial, like shallow water, object to bright sunlight, prefer running water, and responsive to sound. They are responsive to jigs, spoons, spinners, buzzbait, and spinnerbait. They can be caught with worms, minnows, frogs, small fish, and land and earth insects. Such fish are attracted to certain sounds more so than others.
As the art of fishing has developed, so has the art of lures. A lure serves as artificial bait. The lure industry has developed to the point that there are now thousands of options available to anglers, including spoons, chuggers, jerk baits, stick baits, plugs, and chuggers. Advantageous use of a lure requires a determination of the optimum depth to run the lure, a lure's movement, speed, size, shape, color, smell, taste, and reflectivity.
Equally aggressive inventive energy has been used to determine the optimum fishing line. The choice of the optimum fishing line includes a determination of the necessary strength or test, the rigidity of the line, and other equally important characteristics such as thickness, pliability, color, durability, and material. The optimum pole to use in a fishing event is characterized by length, flexibility, resilience, thickness, and portability. Rods are optimized for saltwater fishing, stream fishing, and pond fishing. An angler determined to catch a specific species of fish will certainly have a favorite bait or lure, a line, pole, and reel combination.
The techniques involved in catching a particular size or species of fish are as varied as the combinations of fishing equipment. To secure a particular catch, the angler must understand fish psychology to know where to fish, when to fish, the type of bait or lure, line, pole, and reel to use, the type of motion to communicate to the bait, and even whether to be potentially visible to the catch.
As examples, light, sound, vibration, and scent have been proposed as fish attractors proximate real and artificial bait. U.S. Pat. No. 2,583,660 to Moore provides a device for intermittently supplying liquid lure proximate a fish hook to create a trail that fish will hopefully follow. U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,434 to Horneff provides a fishing pole with a pump assembly and an output tube that transports liquid fish scent from a container to the end of the pole, where it deposits on the fishing line and travels downwardly towards the hook.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,624,146 to Wehn shows a fishing device comprising a pole and reel combination with a vibrating reed sound producing device. Sound is generated by an electromagnetically operated vibrator mechanism consisting of a pair of coils operative with an armature and energized by a dry cell battery and is conducted along a fishing line to the hook. The character of the sound or noise generated by the device is adjustable with a thumbscrew. The range and variety of sounds are limited by the coil-armature combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,977,705 attempts to improve on acoustic attraction of fish by proposing a steep wave front acoustical source as an audio source. Transient vibrations are produced by the intermittent striking of a resilient metal ribbon on a corrugated wheel. Water is accelerated though the housing containing the device by manipulation of the fishing line. As water flows through a protective screen into the confines of the device, a propeller rotates a drive shaft that rotates the corrugated wheel. The tonal characteristics of the transient vibrations are limited and will similarly limit the species of fish that may be attracted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,278 proposes an improved fish caller having an underwater loudspeaker for generating an acoustical signal for attracting fish. The audio source is a pseudo-random noise generator that is pseudo-randomly enabled and disabled and conditioned with upper and lower bandpass filters thought to create a sound similar to that generated during feeding of predatory fish.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,339 to Fuentes et al. discloses a sonic, cylindrically shaped fishing lure with electrical circuitry, an energy source, and a sonic transducer. Sound is produced by a coil activator vibrating first and second vibrating plates. The spectrum of sounds produced is limited and, therefore, limits the number of species of fish that may be attracted. A similar device is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,891 to Holt in which acoustical signatures attractive to fish are recorded and then digitally stored in circuitry contained in a lure housing. An analog signal is produced and then amplified by an amplifier and delivered to an output transducer proximate the bait. The analog and digital circuitry, power source, and transducer are located within the housing. A similar device packaged as a surface float is disclosed is U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,760 to DuMont.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,335 to Langer proposes a multifunctional sensor assembly that includes a sound module, such as a miniature speaker, that emits sounds that attract fish or mimic sounds of bait. The audio signal is transmitted to the sensor assembly along an electrically conductive fishing line. The electrical-to-mechanical energy conversion necessary to cause sound to be emitted from the sensor occurs within the submerged sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,182 to Rodgers discloses a self-contained fishing lure with active circuitry responsive to movement such that an output signal is produced to power a light, an underwater speaker, or a pair of field effect probes. The circuitry is powered by a co-located battery. U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,771 to Watson et al. proposes a battery powered fishing lure with a water-resistant housing containing a power oscillator circuit operating a coil and a noise-making plunger. The oscillator generates preselected patterned electrical signals intended to attract fish.
While the science of attracting fish with particularized sound is well established, there is a need for a low-cost device for producing sound proximate a lure attractive to fish in which the variety of sounds produced is wide.